That's why "P/E" is a poor metric. A high P/E isn't necessarily bad if there is growth to back it up, and a low P/E isn't necessarily good if there is no growth.

A better metric (and much more difficult for most to do) is discounted cash flow (DCF). www.valuepro.net does an OK job with this. Their default numbers are good starting points. Sometimes I tweak their discount rate, though as I believe it often is low.